I. Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates generally to controlling a modem in a computing device.
II. Background
Mobile communication devices have become common in current society. The prevalence of these mobile devices is driven in part by the many functions that are now enabled on such devices. Many of these functions rely on the ability to communicate with websites on the Internet or other sources removed from the mobile device. The proliferation of functions and applications that rely on communication with remote sources is generally handled by packets that pass through the wireless transceiver (e.g., a cellular modem) of the mobile device. Most such mobile devices rely on cellular protocols to handle the transmission and receipt of such packets.
While cellular networks have increasingly robust bandwidths available to users of such mobile devices, the mobile device may still suffer delays in transmission of packets in the cellular modem of the mobile device as the various functions all submit packets for transmission concurrently.
Even if there is only one function sending packets such as a web browser, the web browser can generate a large number of packets at the cellular modem, thus contributing to the congestion at the cellular modem. That is, a browser will typically open numerous transmission control protocol (TCP) connections simultaneously, to achieve higher network utilization under good network conditions. The TCP flow-control algorithms include an acknowledgement (ACK) clocking mechanism to provide a reliable connection. However, using an ACK clocking mechanism involves sending numerous ACK packets on the uplink connection. Under good network conditions, the numerous ACK packets increase performance. However, if the network conditions are sub-optimal, the large number of ACK packets may negatively impact performance.